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I have a 2001 Lincoln Towncar. The radio has been working flawlessly since I bought it. The panel lights on the radio are supposed to turn on automatically when the lights on the car turn on on auto or manually. The panel lights on the radio most of the time do not turn on. Used to be for a while that if I turned the car off for a few minutes, opened the door and closed it again the radio lights would come on when I turned the ignition to on and started the car. Now it doesn't do it at all. But sometimes, low and behold, they turn on when it begins to turn dark and the car lights turn on automatically. It is really annoying. The CD and Radio work great but the lights are possessed by Gremlins. Has anyone had this problem or know the solution? What causes this to happen?

Do you have a sunroof? Leakage there could find it's way down the door pillar - and could explain the wetness in both front and back. I can't believe a leak around the windshield would soak the back as well.

I have a 1998 Lincoln Town Car. Just recently I thought the A/C quit working. I started troubleshooting. When I push the MAX A/C button the compressor kicks on and it is getting cold. I them hear a vacuum shuttle and it starts blowing MAX heat. The A/C and receiver are ice cold under the hood. I thought the climate control crapped out. I bought a used one and replaced it and same problem. Could they both be bad or is there another place to check for the vacuum activated shuttling from heat to A/C. Thanks

I bet you replaced the head unit on the panel? The brain for the system is elsewhere I think. But, you may only have a stuck blend door. That's what I'm betting on. The one time I had this happen to my 92 Continental, a power down (take the battery off the terminal, and reconnect) fixed it, never happened again. Kinda like a re-boot.

My '89 had a sticking heater door on it, or, to put it more right, it just plain would only open half way. If the heater system in your 98 car is still vaccume powered (which i highly doubt) check the vacume motor on the heater door itself.

You will probably be able to gain access to it by taking out the stop in the glove box that keeps it from falling down on your knees and dumping its contents on your lap. Check to make sure the vaccume line is well attatched.

One problem with that problem though, is that the vaccume line is iether on or off. It really can't be in between, and if its off, you will get heat only.

Another item that you could check is the heater control valve, which is under the dash pad in '80's models, and I would assume the same is with your 98. If yours is still a vaccume powered unit, which i doubt, it could be bad (those things had a tendacy to crap out in '80's machines). Again, the problem with that has a different failure mode than what you have mentioned. When the vaccume powered heater control valve fails, you usually only get luke warm or ambient temperature air from both the heater and the air, since a bad unit will only provide a range of low-mid vaccume to high-mid vaccume.

That said, I think your unit is electronic servo operated. In that case, the servo on the heater door could be failing, overheating when in use and shutting off, causing the heater door to return to its home position, which is wide open. That servo would be my first suspect.

I have an 01 Town Car and I noticed every time it rains or I go thrue a puddle the passenger floor gets wet. The water is coming from inside the dashboard and dripping down. I've talked to about 20 other TC owners and they're having the same problem. Anyone have any idea how to fix this?

Why did yous guys hafta change the wheel in the 05 Town Car? I'm renting one in Florida this week, and the control buttons on the spokes are too large, hard to press accurately and unwieldy. Big mistãke if you ask me. Bad design. Like my Navigator wheel much more.

The interior panel brake light in my 1999 Lincoln stays on most of the time when the vehicle is running. There is no noticeable drag at any time while driving. Often it will go off when backing up but reappears again. Any help on this would be appreciated.

I had the same problem recently. The dealer said that this is a common issue with TC. There is a air supply intake for the A/C system that can develop a leak at the gasket. The water will run down inside the door and soak the passenger carpet. They fixed it the first trip and I have not had any problems since. Be sure to leave the floor mats off until the carpet is completely dry.

My car is stored during the winter and it has 65000 miles on it. When the car is driven the air conditioner is used 95% of the time. So one day the sun was out but it was cold, I decided to take it for a run. When I set the temp at 90, the air was cold so I shut it off. I then drove the car till the temp was normal and turned the heater on with cool air coming out. I took it back to my garage and put a temp probe in the vent and it was 64 degrees. I moved the temp from 60-90 then 90-60 (1 cycle) and the temp move down to 62 degrees. I cycled this about 6 times and it moved down to 52 degrees. But the heat side only moved up to 67 degrees. It took many cycles (90-60 then 60-90, moving the temp 1 degree at a time with a couple of times with 2 degree movement. When it hit 86 Degrees it jumped to 103, but when the car was shut off and restarted I was back to square one. I was assuming that the blend door was sticking but I thought why is it defaulting to the air conditioner side. Also I thought there was a safety function in case this happened that would let you go to defrost and you would get heat. This doesn't work, I get cool air out of the defroster too. This happen last summer but the situation was reverse. I drove down to Las Vegas using the heater and when I switched to air conditioning, the air was maybe 72 degrees; just guessing. I stopped at a shop and the guy told me I could do a self test by pushing the OFF & FLOOR buttons at the same time and then within 2 seconds push AUTO. The temp window displayed a clock hand rotating and finally stopped with zero codes. I then pushed the BLUE button. When I tried the air it blew cold air. On the way home the heater also worked when I needed it. The car was driven about 500 more miles before being parked. I have also disconnected the battery with the problem still there.Any advice would be appreciated.

I have a 2000 t/c w/28K miles. I took it to a independent mechanic that I have used for my other cars, to have it serviced. He contacted me and told me I have a head gasket leaking oil on the back corner, drivers side. I might add, I've known this person for some time, and know him to be an excellent mechanic, as well as extremely honest.

He also told me that the 4.6 engine was called a romeo engine, that the heads were finished to a glass like finish when new, and during assembly, it was not uncommon for metal flakes from the assembly process to get in between the heads, gasket, and block, and that with the expansion and contraction it is fairly common for them to develope leaks.

Of course, the car is now out of warranty. I'm just wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem?

The power windows in my 1984 Town Car now refuse to function. If I use a jumper battery with wires to the back of the door-switches, I can make the windows go up or down, but NOT with the switches themselves. The fuses are alright. A test-light shows that there is no electricity getting to the door switches. I have put in a new power-window relay (in the right passenger-side kick-panel area). The power-windows STILL refuse to function. Any suggestions? Thank you.

I'm not saying your mechanic is lying, but this is the first time I've ever heard of a 4.6L engine having a head gasket leak. I've heard of a few 5.4L's having that problem. It's certainly not impossible. But as for "fairly common" for them to develop leaks? That, I'm a little dubious about as I'm very familiar with this family of engines, and it's the first time I've heard of it.

I had a '92 TC (also 4.6) and I sold it to my brother with 130K miles, and he drove it 4 more years, junked it last year at 190K miles on original engine, and no head gasket problem. My '01 Signature TC (4.6) had the intake manifold gaskets replaced under warrantee. It has 63K miles nows and no problems with head gaskets, but I was told it needs lower ball joints today.

Re: Gas and brake too close... I have had same problem with my '01 Sig TC since I bought it in July '01, and told the DLR that I had heard they were fixing this on Taurus and other Lincoln/Ford vehicles. They had a tool that they measured the space with, and if it "passed" they did not fix it. Mine "passed" but I still step on Gas and Brake at same time with my size 13 right foot more often than not. It was not like this on my '95 Crown Vic, but they told me that was cuz the car was made for cops with boots on.. and Lincoln was not. It is a definite safety hazard. When I don't feel the car slowing down for the pressure I am exerting, I shift my foot to see if it might be on both pedals. The biggest problem is that the brake pedal ends up down at (and below) the height of the gas pedal when you step on the brake. If brake pedal engaged at higher point, it would not have this problem. Good luck...